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Speaker 1: Strange Arrivals is a production of I Heart three D

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Speaker 1: audio for full exposure, listen with headphones. What do you

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Speaker 1: think of when I say the words Area fifty one,

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Speaker 1: I think of aliens and government cover up. I think aliens,

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Speaker 1: I think military. I think government cast site for secret

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Speaker 1: aircraft projects where they're also might be UFOs being stashed

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Speaker 1: after US who crash in the United States secret place

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Speaker 1: the government hypes things. There was this big thing. I

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Speaker 1: don't know if it was last year or the year before,

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Speaker 1: but there's this whole thing about it. Area do you

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Speaker 1: Want Raid? The military has kind of confirmed that there's

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Speaker 1: top secret stuff going on there, just with how they've

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Speaker 1: reacted to the people trying to storm Areas fifty one

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Speaker 1: and stuff like that. Admit it pretty clear that they

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Speaker 1: don't want anybody there for at this point decades. There's

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Speaker 1: been various references till UFOs and creatures that were found there.

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Speaker 1: Even if you have no interest in UFOs or government conspiracies,

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Speaker 1: you know about Area fifty one. It's the secret base

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Speaker 1: where the government supposedly houses crashed UFOs. It's where advanced

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Speaker 1: alien technology is used to create aircraft whose capabilities defy

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Speaker 1: the laws of physics as we know them, and it's

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Speaker 1: evidence of a profound government conspiracy. Chris Carter had these

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Speaker 1: cultural understandings in mind when he created the X files.

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Speaker 1: We took a lot of what people knew about aliens

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Speaker 1: or believed about aliens and UFOs, extraterrestrials and the government conspiracy.

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Speaker 1: And there was a certain fascination with Roswell with areat one.

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Speaker 1: They were part of the extraterrestrial alien abduction UFO lore.

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Speaker 1: So how do you know about Area fifty one? Do

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Speaker 1: you remember when you first heard about it, when you

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Speaker 1: heard about it again and again. It's not from the

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Speaker 1: government until recently. The government hasn't said anything official about

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Speaker 1: UFOs since nineteen sixty nine. What we think we know

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Speaker 1: about UFOs didn't come from any authoritative source. Instead, our

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Speaker 1: understanding comes from unofficial sources within the culture. It is

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Speaker 1: a kind of modern folklore. Now, folklore might make you

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Speaker 1: think of myths or fairy tales or things that aren't true,

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Speaker 1: but that's not necessarily the case. Folklore is just knowledge

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Speaker 1: that it is transmitted through non formal means, like jokes

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Speaker 1: or urban legends or rumors. Whether that knowledge represents something

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Speaker 1: real or not. Is almost beside the point. What is

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Speaker 1: important is how that information is created and why it

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Speaker 1: catches on. On this season of Strange Arrivals, we'll look

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Speaker 1: at how that cultural understanding of UFOs evolved, beginning with

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Speaker 1: the case known as Britain's Roswell, a series of encounters

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Speaker 1: that stretched over three nights. We'll look at the initial

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Speaker 1: story of the encounters, what the explanations might be, and

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Speaker 1: then how the accounts changed and grew after the fact,

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Speaker 1: zooming out. How was our understanding of UFOs formed beginning

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Speaker 1: in the late nineteen forties, and how does it continue

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Speaker 1: to influence the way we look at strange things in

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Speaker 1: the sky. I'm Toby Ball and this is Strange Arrivals

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Speaker 1: Episode one Boxing Day A variety of entertainment, but Christmas

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Speaker 1: comedy with Little and Large Yard Wild to Christmas Show

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Speaker 1: this year she set fire to the turkey and stuff

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Speaker 1: the Christmas pudding, Christmas Magic contlusion with All Daniels. Now

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Speaker 1: we've got all these practice from the Christmas tree and

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Speaker 1: it's a festive blanket event. Oh look the place scattered

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Speaker 1: with empty boxes of entertainment for Christmas with BBC One

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Speaker 1: Christmas Night at Royal Air Force bent Waters in Air

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Speaker 1: Base seventy five miles northeast of London on the North

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Speaker 1: Sea coast. R A F. Bent Waters was technically a

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Speaker 1: British base, but since World War Two had been under

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Speaker 1: the control of the U. S Air Force. Three miles

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Speaker 1: from Bentwaters was another Royal Air Force based under US

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Speaker 1: control called R A F. Woodbridge. Surrounding these bases was

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Speaker 1: a tract of English land called Randols from Forest, and

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Speaker 1: it was on this tract of land that the sidings

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Speaker 1: known as Britain's Roswell occurred. There were a number of

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Speaker 1: witnesses to these events, but we will hear from the

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Speaker 1: three who had the most direct experiences. Two of them

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Speaker 1: in this episode. Well, it came on duty. It was

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Speaker 1: Christmas night. It's kind of a late back night. They

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Speaker 1: were actually playing some Christmas songs on the radio and

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Speaker 1: one of the frequencies. The story of the first night

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Speaker 1: starts with John Burrows. My name is John Burrows, retired

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Speaker 1: United States Air Force. I was involved in an incident

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Speaker 1: in that was at our fl Honors. I was a

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Speaker 1: law enforcement so I was like a city cop. So

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Speaker 1: I was stationed there. From we worked twenty seven about

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Speaker 1: oh three hundred on which his Boxing day in the UK.

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Speaker 1: While patrol, I was riding with my supervisor. Just got

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Speaker 1: to the base and he wanted to ride around for

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Speaker 1: a little bit. We were out doing some checks and

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Speaker 1: one of the checks was going down by the East Gate.

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Speaker 1: We were driving down towards the East Gate when he

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Speaker 1: saw something strange in the sky. Wanted for the forest.

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Speaker 1: Later was quoted as saying it landed and didn't crashed.

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Speaker 1: Because I had been stationed there for almost two years,

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Speaker 1: he got my attention and asked me if i'd say

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Speaker 1: anything like that down there in that vicinity. And I

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Speaker 1: looked at what he was looking at and they said no.

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Speaker 1: There was like a coloring in the forest like orange

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Speaker 1: is reddish, like a white light. Burrows Supervisor Sergeant Bud

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Speaker 1: Stephens decided that they needed to investigate this further. This

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Speaker 1: meant leaving the base. He decided that we were going

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Speaker 1: to open up the gate, go down to the end

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Speaker 1: of the road where there was a t whether or

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Speaker 1: you were right there where you make a left or

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Speaker 1: right left to go to Bell Waters, and then the

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Speaker 1: forest was right across the road. Leaving the base was

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Speaker 1: not a decision to be made lightly once they stepped

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Speaker 1: foot off base, they were on English land. As we

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Speaker 1: will see, it can be a very big deal to

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Speaker 1: have US military acting on English territory without permission. On

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Speaker 1: this night, they left the base, so he drove down

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Speaker 1: to the t. He did like a U turn, so

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Speaker 1: the vehicle was partially handing back towards the gate. I

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Speaker 1: opened my door. When I opened the door, you can

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Speaker 1: see the light was a white light. There was advancing

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Speaker 1: towards us. There was a statical electricity there. At that point,

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Speaker 1: both in the and I decided it was time to

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Speaker 1: get back on the base because no one knew we

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Speaker 1: were off base and hall and what was going on.

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Speaker 1: We went out to the gate, called it in the

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Speaker 1: It was a direct line to the law enforcement desks.

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Speaker 1: The death sergeant at the desk, I played some practical

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Speaker 1: jokes on him, so he actually didn't totally believe me.

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Speaker 1: But Stephans got on the phone and reinforce it. But

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Speaker 1: the desk sergeant still wasn't sure, so he transferred the

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Speaker 1: call to Central Security Control or CSC. We went ahead

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Speaker 1: and briefed c SC on what was going on. At

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Speaker 1: that point. They said the security supervisor down to the

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Speaker 1: gate that would have been Sergeant Peniston. My name is

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Speaker 1: Jim Peniston the United States Thereforce. Retired Sergeant Jim Peniston

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Speaker 1: is the second of the main witnesses. I was assigned

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Speaker 1: as a security police flight chief. We worked on the

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Speaker 1: main operating base, which was pent Waters, but that night

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Speaker 1: I was working as flight chief over a Wooden Reach base.

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Speaker 1: My job was the protection of all the priority BE

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Speaker 1: and C resources over there, and also the base personnel

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Speaker 1: and their property. And I doing a parimeter lighting check

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Speaker 1: for the base, which ones burned out. Really mundane stuff.

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Speaker 1: I completed all that, I met up on starte with

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Speaker 1: McCulley at the chow hall on the base. This is

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Speaker 1: around twelve o'clock midnight. As we'll see, the eyewitness stories

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Speaker 1: are not always consistent. To make the narrative easier to follow,

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Speaker 1: will start by looking at the basics of the story,

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Speaker 1: the things they agree on. We'll examine the differences later.

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Speaker 1: For now, though, it's important to note that Burrows and

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Speaker 1: Peniston disagree about a very important and fundamental part of

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Speaker 1: the story, the timing of events. Burrows talks about the

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Speaker 1: sighting beginning around three in the morning. Peniston puts it

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Speaker 1: at midnight. I promise we'll take a look at why

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Speaker 1: this matters later in the season. But Burrows's timing is

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Speaker 1: consistent with other statements given at the time, So for clarity,

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Speaker 1: we'll use Brows's timeline, and that means when Penniston talks

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Speaker 1: about being at the chow hall at midnight, we're actually

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Speaker 1: talking about three am. Saron Colley says, you got a

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Speaker 1: call the Calle Central Security Control and I said, okay,

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Speaker 1: I missed it and went over to our direct lyne

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Speaker 1: there and I said what's going on? And they said

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Speaker 1: you need to go out to the East Gate immediately,

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Speaker 1: go code to code to ment, proceed with lights on

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Speaker 1: but no sirens. This indicated that there was some urgency

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Speaker 1: to the situation. Penniston asked, what was going on? So

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Speaker 1: will you be briefed after you get out there? Which

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Speaker 1: was odd. So it's about a five minute drive going,

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Speaker 1: you know. I get out there at the East skate

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Speaker 1: area and started Bud Stephens, he's a law enforcement supervisor.

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Speaker 1: I contact him. I said, what's going on? Bud? He

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Speaker 1: started pointing over towards Rendissrom Forest and I said, oh,

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Speaker 1: what's what's sad over there? I'm trying to figure out

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Speaker 1: what it is and he's not telling me. You could

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Speaker 1: see uh, glowing multicolored lights and white light over the

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Speaker 1: canopy of the forest. Peniston thought that the most likely

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Speaker 1: explanation was a plane crash. He'd seen a number in

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Speaker 1: his career. I says, you know, do you hear crash

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Speaker 1: or you know, do the land or he said landed.

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Speaker 1: That's that's impossible because the forest, all the trees are

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Speaker 1: about five to six ft apart, so there's nothing that

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Speaker 1: can survive a landing out there. Despite this strange comment

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Speaker 1: from Stephens, Peniston still figured it was probably an airplane crash,

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Speaker 1: and he used the direct phone line at the East

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Speaker 1: gate to call back to Central Security Control on base.

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Speaker 1: And so I'm on the phone with Darting Coffee, and

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Speaker 1: when you make a direct call to Central Security Control,

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Speaker 1: you have like five people on the line at the time,

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Speaker 1: and they're all doing different functions. I was talking to

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Speaker 1: a starting channel of the flight sergeant and I was

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Speaker 1: telling about what I was observing, and the starting Coffee

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Speaker 1: comes back online and says, yeah, I've contacted Eastern radar,

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Speaker 1: London radar and Bentwater's radar and we have lost the

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Speaker 1: contact with the Bogie and he says over Woodbridge Base.

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Speaker 1: That means that they didn't have a transponder on it.

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Speaker 1: It is probably military and he said about fifteen minutes ago.

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Speaker 1: So that created the emergency situation along at my visual

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Speaker 1: sighting that we had a possible aircraft down. With the

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Speaker 1: emergency condition existed, that gave us rights under the Status

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Speaker 1: of Forces agreement to deploye off base and to investigate

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Speaker 1: and to secure the crash site. So I took myself

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Speaker 1: a security airman and a law enforcement airmand with me.

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Speaker 1: The security airmen was named Ed Caban Sag. The law

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Speaker 1: enforcement airmen was John Burrows. There was no need to

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Speaker 1: take weapons off base for an aircraft crash. The British

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Speaker 1: were very sensitive about automatic weapons and stuff like that.

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Speaker 1: Being off base airmen John Burrows. We left our weapons

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Speaker 1: with Stephens, who didn't want to go in the first

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Speaker 1: place until we watched our weapons, and we proceeded off

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Speaker 1: based into the forest. So while Burrows is supervisor, Bud

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Speaker 1: Stephens stayed back with the other men's weapons. Peniston, Burrows

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Speaker 1: and Caban Sag piled into a jeep and drove towards

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Speaker 1: the lights, expecting to come across a downed plane when

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Speaker 1: as far as I could with my c J five

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Speaker 1: jeep that we had. That's where I set the ANSER

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Speaker 1: control point up aermon combands after the security Aermond. The

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Speaker 1: only other person had a radio interface radio was him,

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Speaker 1: so I set him up as an injury controller. I

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Speaker 1: was going to proceed to the actual crash site with

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Speaker 1: the law enforcement aermind Airmand Burrows. At that time, I

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Speaker 1: was noticing I was having a breakup of my radio,

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Speaker 1: which was impossible because we had repeaters all over the basis.

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Speaker 1: There's no way that we could have a radio problem,

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Speaker 1: but I was having him. So I told Cabanza, for

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Speaker 1: any recent control center doesn't read what I'm saying or

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Speaker 1: something like that, I want you to relay the information.

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Speaker 1: He said he'd do that, so, leaving Caban sag behind,

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Speaker 1: Penniston and Brows proceeded further into the forest towards the light.

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Speaker 1: Strange arrivals will return in a moment. We've heard John

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00:15:21,680 --> 00:15:25,080
Speaker 1: Burrows and Jim Peniston tell us their version of what

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Speaker 1: led up to their encounter in the forest. Afterward, several

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Speaker 1: of the witnesses, including Burrows and Peniston, wrote statements to

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Speaker 1: describe what had happened that night. We will have actors

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Speaker 1: read from those statements where they helped to clarify the story.

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Speaker 1: This is from burrows handwritten statement. We crossed the small

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Speaker 1: open field that led into where the lights were coming from,

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Speaker 1: and as we were coming into the trees, there were

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00:15:52,640 --> 00:15:56,920
Speaker 1: strange noises like a woman screaming. Also, the woods lit

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00:15:57,040 --> 00:15:59,440
Speaker 1: up and you could hear the fire animals making a

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Speaker 1: lot of noises, and there was a lot of movement

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Speaker 1: in the woods again Sergeant Jim Peniston. And so we

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Speaker 1: get to the forest edge and I'm seeing the multicolored

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Speaker 1: lights has pretty much disappeared. I'm seeing mainly a white

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Speaker 1: light coming out from behind the trees. I entered the

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Speaker 1: forest and I started feeling different physical sensations, like I

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Speaker 1: could feel static electricity on my face and my hair

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Speaker 1: and my clothes, and that was unusual. I was finding

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Speaker 1: my movements labored. It would be like walking through a

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00:16:37,440 --> 00:16:42,640
Speaker 1: pool water that that was wasty. They struggled to get

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Speaker 1: to a low embankment, which Burrows refers to as a berm.

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Speaker 1: As we came up on the top of the berm,

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Speaker 1: there was bright lights right in front of us. When

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Speaker 1: we saw the lights, we all hit the ground, and

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Speaker 1: whatever it was, it was really bright, dimmed down a

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Speaker 1: little bit, and all I remember was the lights dimming

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00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:08,360
Speaker 1: down and going bright again. Burrows and Peniston have very

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00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:12,680
Speaker 1: different stories about what happened next. We'll come back to

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Speaker 1: Peniston's account later in this season. Burrows account is very brief.

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Speaker 1: According to him, shortly after they came upon it, the

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00:17:21,440 --> 00:17:25,680
Speaker 1: light began to retreat from them. Once the lights began

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Speaker 1: moving again, their accounts basically line up. Here's another passage

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Speaker 1: from Burrows's written account, read by an actor. Whatever it was.

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Speaker 1: After a minute or two, we got up and moved

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Speaker 1: into the trees, and the lights moved out into the

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Speaker 1: open field. Burrows handwrote his statement describing the events of

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Speaker 1: this night. Peniston's account was typed. Strangely, Peniston says that

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00:17:52,720 --> 00:17:56,639
Speaker 1: he didn't even write the statement himself. He says that

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00:17:56,760 --> 00:18:00,600
Speaker 1: he reported to Central Security Control after the event and

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00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:04,680
Speaker 1: was handed a typed sheet. It was the official story.

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00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:07,720
Speaker 1: He says he was told that this was his account.

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Speaker 1: He gave it a quick read, so I read through it.

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00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:15,480
Speaker 1: Times are right, the information is right. I gave it

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00:18:15,520 --> 00:18:20,359
Speaker 1: back to him. Peniston says the document was created based

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Speaker 1: on his radio transmissions during the incident. Apparently, even though

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00:18:26,080 --> 00:18:29,639
Speaker 1: he was unable to receive transmissions at the time, his

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00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:34,800
Speaker 1: words got back to base. Here from his typed statement,

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Speaker 1: he describes the craft leaving the forest. It was definitely

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00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:43,160
Speaker 1: mechanical in nature. This is the closest point that I

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00:18:43,240 --> 00:18:46,560
Speaker 1: was near the object at any point. We then proceeded

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Speaker 1: after it. It moved in a zig zagging manner back

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Speaker 1: through the woods, then lost sight of it again. Peniston

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Speaker 1: will have much more to say about this part of

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Speaker 1: the encounter later in the season. It's important to note

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Speaker 1: that Burrows says that he never actually saw a physical craft.

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Speaker 1: He just saw lights, though he doesn't discount the idea

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Speaker 1: that an actual craft was the source. At that point

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00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:19,040
Speaker 1: in time, I was pretty much trying to regain some

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00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:22,879
Speaker 1: sense of what was going on, and the airman was

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00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:26,520
Speaker 1: twenty ft back to my right. It was beside me

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Speaker 1: at this point, and he's all excited. He's talking about

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Speaker 1: John Burrows. He says that he sees a craft, which

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00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:38,840
Speaker 1: was impossible to see any craft at that point because

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00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:44,720
Speaker 1: the woods so thick, and he took off, and so

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00:19:45,320 --> 00:19:48,480
Speaker 1: I immediately started following because we had, you know, we

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00:19:48,600 --> 00:19:52,840
Speaker 1: have to maintain a team concept, which was pretty hard

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00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:57,720
Speaker 1: to do. The lights are you know, you could maybe

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00:19:57,760 --> 00:20:00,240
Speaker 1: say object or whatever because the lights. But know, as

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00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:03,520
Speaker 1: far as the craft, he called it a craft. I'm

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00:20:03,560 --> 00:20:06,119
Speaker 1: not saying it wasn't. I'm just saying that's what what

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00:20:06,280 --> 00:20:09,919
Speaker 1: I'm calling. I have no idea what it was. What

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00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:14,320
Speaker 1: we did then was we got up and we could

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00:20:14,320 --> 00:20:16,720
Speaker 1: see it. We were at the edge of the forest

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00:20:17,040 --> 00:20:20,800
Speaker 1: before a field started a farmer's field. Then there were

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00:20:20,800 --> 00:20:25,200
Speaker 1: some cottages farther down into the field. So we saw

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00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:27,919
Speaker 1: something strange down by one of the houses of cottages

295
00:20:28,560 --> 00:20:31,080
Speaker 1: and we climbed over the fence, went through the field

296
00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:37,200
Speaker 1: and whatever it was was gone again. He was off

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00:20:37,200 --> 00:20:41,800
Speaker 1: with a good pace and we maybe went maybe fifty

298
00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:45,879
Speaker 1: sixty yards. I had to jump to fences, one barbed

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00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:49,719
Speaker 1: wa We got to a farmer's field and chasing him

300
00:20:49,760 --> 00:20:51,720
Speaker 1: and I fall down two or three times in the

301
00:20:51,760 --> 00:20:55,359
Speaker 1: middle of this farmer's field. I was wet, I was cold,

302
00:20:55,680 --> 00:21:00,280
Speaker 1: I was exhausted. It was the beginning of winter. A

303
00:21:00,359 --> 00:21:04,520
Speaker 1: layer of ice had formed over the field. Penniston got

304
00:21:04,560 --> 00:21:08,160
Speaker 1: past the farmers houses and caught up with Burrows, who

305
00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:12,320
Speaker 1: was watching the sky. Penniston asked bros. What he was chasing.

306
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:18,760
Speaker 1: Burrows said he was chasing the UFO. Said where's that?

307
00:21:20,359 --> 00:21:23,040
Speaker 1: I couldn't gain a visual of it. And finally he

308
00:21:23,119 --> 00:21:25,720
Speaker 1: put his arm out and he said, look down on

309
00:21:25,760 --> 00:21:29,520
Speaker 1: my arm, he points in the opposite direction that we're

310
00:21:29,600 --> 00:21:34,000
Speaker 1: running in towards the coast. This is where is I

311
00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:37,280
Speaker 1: don't see it. You see, it's right there, right there

312
00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:45,080
Speaker 1: on the horizon. There that's the Orfordness lighthouse. That's five

313
00:21:45,160 --> 00:21:50,159
Speaker 1: miles away. That's not what we've seen. Then when I

314
00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:54,320
Speaker 1: turned back around, the craft was sitting above the tree

315
00:21:54,359 --> 00:22:00,600
Speaker 1: line over by Capel Green, which is more forest, and

316
00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:02,760
Speaker 1: and then it just started moving out towards the sea

317
00:22:03,560 --> 00:22:05,440
Speaker 1: at a sore of rate. I don't know. I can

318
00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:09,359
Speaker 1: guess the mate see me before, but you can at

319
00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:15,840
Speaker 1: least see it transverse the sky. Immediately after I lost

320
00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:20,119
Speaker 1: contact with that sighting of that, my radio was working.

321
00:22:20,840 --> 00:22:23,159
Speaker 1: I told him that I can receive him well, and

322
00:22:23,200 --> 00:22:25,960
Speaker 1: he says, go ahead and proceed to the east gate.

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00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:32,439
Speaker 1: And that's what we did. Peniston's detailed description of this

324
00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:36,360
Speaker 1: conversation with Burrows about where the lighthouse was and where

325
00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:41,240
Speaker 1: the UFO was becomes important. Burrows it should be noted

326
00:22:41,560 --> 00:22:45,520
Speaker 1: mentioned in his written account that they actually saw that

327
00:22:45,600 --> 00:22:48,520
Speaker 1: the light they were chasing was coming from a lighthouse.

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00:22:49,280 --> 00:22:52,879
Speaker 1: Both men mentioned seeing a blue light what Peniston just

329
00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:57,439
Speaker 1: referred to as the craft. Burrows wrote, we had just

330
00:22:57,600 --> 00:22:59,920
Speaker 1: passed a cree and we're told to come back when

331
00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:02,280
Speaker 1: we saw a blue light to our left in the trees.

332
00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:06,000
Speaker 1: It was only there for a minute and just streaked away.

333
00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:11,320
Speaker 1: The typed account approved by Peniston merely said, on the

334
00:23:11,359 --> 00:23:14,520
Speaker 1: way back, we encountered a blue streaking light to the left,

335
00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:17,879
Speaker 1: only lasting a few seconds. That was the end of

336
00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:21,719
Speaker 1: the encounter. On the first night. With the lights gone,

337
00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:24,920
Speaker 1: the three men returned to the jeep and drove back

338
00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:29,280
Speaker 1: to the base. It's kind of vague because I don't well.

339
00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:32,239
Speaker 1: I basically just remember as we came back, there were

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00:23:32,240 --> 00:23:35,080
Speaker 1: some people waiting for us. I don't remember what we

341
00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:38,440
Speaker 1: said at the time, but there was kind of a conversation.

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00:23:39,359 --> 00:23:41,240
Speaker 1: I don't want to call it. Said. He talked to

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00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:44,199
Speaker 1: us about what went on, told us about the radar

344
00:23:45,359 --> 00:23:50,600
Speaker 1: contact and all that other stuff. Peniston meanwhile reported to

345
00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:55,399
Speaker 1: Central Security Control and I go with the security guys.

346
00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:59,800
Speaker 1: Arrived back at Central Security Control and started channel the

347
00:24:00,119 --> 00:24:02,760
Speaker 1: sergeant from Bett Horns is waiting for me. He says,

348
00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:05,959
Speaker 1: how you doing this? Is? You ain't gonna believe all

349
00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:09,879
Speaker 1: this early happened? He says, oh, yes, said I was

350
00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:11,760
Speaker 1: at the east Gate. He say, I've seen it all.

351
00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:16,040
Speaker 1: I says, wow. I said, I don't know what to say.

352
00:24:16,359 --> 00:24:20,840
Speaker 1: He was just about as perplexed as I was. He says, well,

353
00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:24,080
Speaker 1: when you've done turning in your weapon and stuff like that,

354
00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:27,720
Speaker 1: the flight captain who wants to see it in this office,

355
00:24:28,160 --> 00:24:33,359
Speaker 1: that's okay. Before meeting with the captain, Peniston was shown

356
00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:37,160
Speaker 1: the pre type statement about the incident and approved it.

357
00:24:38,119 --> 00:24:42,200
Speaker 1: I go back out to see Captain Vernal and Burrows

358
00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:45,160
Speaker 1: is standing as you've come with me. I just don't

359
00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:50,080
Speaker 1: say anything. I'll report in for us. And I knew

360
00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:53,000
Speaker 1: that I had to keep it simple with There's certain

361
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:55,600
Speaker 1: things you at the time that you would never say

362
00:24:55,600 --> 00:24:57,600
Speaker 1: in the Air Force. Be could be an end of

363
00:24:57,640 --> 00:25:01,520
Speaker 1: your career. And one of those terms is UFO. You

364
00:25:01,560 --> 00:25:05,560
Speaker 1: don't use that. So I came up with a term

365
00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:09,399
Speaker 1: that would best describe it, you know, without lyne. I

366
00:25:09,480 --> 00:25:14,760
Speaker 1: called it the craft unknown origin. Captain Moronald, how, I

367
00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:17,840
Speaker 1: don't think we report this, he says, uh, you know

368
00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:20,960
Speaker 1: blue Book, And in sixty nine he says, I don't

369
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:24,280
Speaker 1: think there's a way to report it. The captain was

370
00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:28,120
Speaker 1: referring to Project Blue Buck, the last of three Air

371
00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:35,320
Speaker 1: Force programs investigating UFO reports. The first projects signed began

372
00:25:35,359 --> 00:25:40,560
Speaker 1: in nine. In nineteen sixty nine, the Air Force officially

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00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:45,320
Speaker 1: closed the program. From that point on, air Force policy

374
00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:50,240
Speaker 1: was to no longer take UFO reports. People who called

375
00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:54,879
Speaker 1: in with sightings were referred to local law enforcement. Because

376
00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:58,040
Speaker 1: of this policy, it wasn't clear what to do with

377
00:25:58,119 --> 00:26:01,600
Speaker 1: the reports of the events of that night. The captain

378
00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:05,800
Speaker 1: was stunned. He said, I'll tell you what to do.

379
00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:09,200
Speaker 1: He says, just go home. He says, take three days

380
00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:13,920
Speaker 1: off and let me handle it. I said, okay, and

381
00:26:14,040 --> 00:26:17,840
Speaker 1: that's what I did. So I got back in the vehicle,

382
00:26:18,119 --> 00:26:20,160
Speaker 1: and at that time I was going to give Burrows

383
00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:24,280
Speaker 1: right home. And we lived down in ipswich As about

384
00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:27,800
Speaker 1: twenty miles away. Burles says, we gotta go back out there,

385
00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:29,680
Speaker 1: and said, oh no, I said no, we should look

386
00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:34,040
Speaker 1: at it in the daylight. And he says, okay, okay.

387
00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:36,119
Speaker 1: He's pretty adamant about it, but you know what it

388
00:26:36,119 --> 00:26:42,440
Speaker 1: made sense, well back out there, private owned vehicle and

389
00:26:43,119 --> 00:26:46,280
Speaker 1: walk back through the woods and we're looking at you know,

390
00:26:46,680 --> 00:26:51,560
Speaker 1: the area we're at, and burrows fine cy landing site,

391
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:55,080
Speaker 1: take off site. He's over here over here, and I

392
00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:58,879
Speaker 1: go over and looking there's three intentions in the ground

393
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:04,080
Speaker 1: that really really craft was the sitting. I said, we

394
00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:06,000
Speaker 1: would be a better just get out of here. You know,

395
00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:10,880
Speaker 1: that's enough. That's at all I wanted to see. As

396
00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:14,639
Speaker 1: they walked back towards Penistin's vehicle, they ran into a

397
00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:19,640
Speaker 1: group of superior officers, including a Major Drury, who were

398
00:27:19,680 --> 00:27:25,120
Speaker 1: walking towards what Peniston calls the landing site. Major Dury says,

399
00:27:25,119 --> 00:27:26,439
Speaker 1: what are you doing out here? And so we just

400
00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:28,320
Speaker 1: wanted to look at this in the light, and he said,

401
00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:30,240
Speaker 1: you guys need to go home. We're going to handle it.

402
00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:33,800
Speaker 1: I said, okay, no problems, sir. So that's what we did.

403
00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:36,840
Speaker 1: And at that point then that was the end for me.

404
00:27:36,920 --> 00:27:40,199
Speaker 1: At night one, you know, I went home and I

405
00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:45,320
Speaker 1: went to bed. Penistin, though was unable to sleep. He

406
00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:49,160
Speaker 1: asked his landlord, who was apparently a contractor who did

407
00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:52,520
Speaker 1: painting and light repair work on houses for some plaster

408
00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:56,959
Speaker 1: of Paris got all pre mixed and stuff like that. Bags,

409
00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:00,720
Speaker 1: got my backpack, went back out there. I didn't run

410
00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:05,000
Speaker 1: anybody going out there. They were all gone. I took

411
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:09,880
Speaker 1: impressions with the plaster of Paris of the ground landing

412
00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:14,000
Speaker 1: cod area waited out there at the time. I smoked.

413
00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:16,440
Speaker 1: I think it took three cigarettes. I waited for it

414
00:28:16,560 --> 00:28:20,800
Speaker 1: to dry. When the casts were dry, he packed them

415
00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:24,720
Speaker 1: into his backpack and left the site. On his way

416
00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:27,360
Speaker 1: back to where he had parked, he once again ran

417
00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:32,200
Speaker 1: into Major Drury, this time accompanied by a half dozen cops.

418
00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:36,240
Speaker 1: This was not a great situation for Peniston, since he

419
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:39,880
Speaker 1: had been ordered home previously. He said, I thought I

420
00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:41,520
Speaker 1: told you to go home. I said, I was. I

421
00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:43,440
Speaker 1: just wanted to check it out. Against you go home,

422
00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:46,120
Speaker 1: he says. That's the order. He says, I once you realized.

423
00:28:47,280 --> 00:28:51,120
Speaker 1: Peniston went home with his Plaster of Paris casts and

424
00:28:51,160 --> 00:28:55,760
Speaker 1: finally got some sleep. The first encounter was finally over.

425
00:28:56,800 --> 00:28:59,560
Speaker 1: There was no way he could know that the sightings

426
00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:08,920
Speaker 1: had just begun next time on Strange Arrivals. Strange Arrivals

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00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:11,440
Speaker 1: is a production of I Heeart, three D audio and

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Speaker 1: Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey. This episode was written

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Speaker 1: and hosted by Toby Ball and produced by Miranda Hawkins

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Speaker 1: and Josh Thame, with executive producers Alex Williams, Matt Frederick,

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Speaker 1: and Aaron Mankey, with voice acting by Joe McCormick and

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Speaker 1: Jeff Williams, and special thanks to Wendy Connors, creator of

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Speaker 1: the Faded Discs archive of UFO related audio on archive

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Speaker 1: dot orgs. Learn more about Strange Arrivals over at grimm

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Speaker 1: and mild dot com, and find more podcasts from my

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Speaker 1: heart Radio by visiting the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows